I know that many of you have probably heard of geocacheing with handheld GPS units. These are hidden boxes (usually) that have published GPS coordinates on the web at www.geocaching.com. You can do a search and find some local caches and then grab your GPS unit and head out to the trails. We have done this a few times, and it is fun and a good way to take a break from those uphill climbs that are so numerous in WNC. You can plug in the coordinates to the cache in your GPS, and you use the GPS to tell you which direction to head in when you get close to where the cache is hidden. I like to look at it like a big game of global hide and seek.

You can also use your GPS to find trails or even map trails that you have hiked or biked. Turn your unit on and put it in your Camel Bak and start riding! Try visiting one of the links on this site, www.travelbygps.com. This site give you gps coordinates for trails all over, and you can even send in some of yours for the webmaster to publish. If you really want to get technical, you can convert the files from the travelbygps site to a Google Earth format and view your trail in Google Earth, seeing all the terrain as it really is. Pretty cool stuff.

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